Their simple motto tells the story: “Withcompassion for others, we build, we fight,for peace with freedom.”For the past 75 years, the U.S. Navy Seabees repeat-edly have demonstrated their skill as warfighters fromthe islands of the Pacific, the jungles of Vietnam, themountains of Bosnia and the sands of the Middle East.During peacetime, the Seabees have served as goodwillambassadors around the globe, applying their knowl-edge of modern construction techniques to help othersto help themselves.

In 1941, Rear Adm. Ben Moreell, then-chief of the
Navy’s Bureau of Yards and Docks (predecessor to the
Naval Facilities Engineering Command), recommended
establishing Naval Construction Battalions in order to
create a construction force that, unlike civilian contractors, could defend themselves and their projects
in times of war. On Jan. 5, 1942, just after the attack
on Pearl Harbor and the United States’ entrance into
the war, Moreell was given the authority to establish
the Naval Construction Force thus enabling the Allied
forces to extend their reach in both theaters of war by
building advanced bases.

Although the first Seabees arrived in the Pacific
Theater in February 1942, the Navy officially approved
the name “Seabees,” derived from the first letters of
Construction Battalion, and they were formally established on March 5, 1942. Seabees were recruited into the
military from the civilian construction trades and placed
under the leadership of the Navy’s Civil Engineer Corps.

During World War II, approximately 325,000 Seabees
performed now-legendary deeds in both the Atlantic and
Pacific theaters. At a cost of nearly $11 billion and many
casualties, they constructed more than 400 advanced
bases along five figurative roads to victory that all had
their beginnings in the continental United States.

The South Atlantic road wound through the CaribbeanSea to Africa, Sicily and up the Italian peninsula. TheNorth Atlantic road passed through Newfoundlandto Iceland, Great Britain, France and Germany. TheNorth Pacific road passed through Alaska and along theAleutian island chain. The Central Pacific road passedthrough the Hawaiian, Marshall, Gilbert, Mariana andRyukyu islands. The South Pacific road went through theSouth Sea islands to Samoa, the Solomons, New Guineaand the Philippines. All the Pacific roads converged onJapan and the Asiatic mainland.

During World War II, the Seabees were a Naval
Reserve organization, created specifically for that
war. Most Seabees were “USNR” and served “for
the duration plus six months.” After the war, it was
clear that the Seabees, having more than proved their
worth, would be a valuable new addition to the regular
Navy. In 1947, the Seabees became part of the regular,
peacetime Navy. At the same time, the Seabee Reserve
Organization was established to augment active-duty
Seabees during national emergencies.

By 1950, the Construction Battalions were reduced
to 3,300 men on active duty, but this changed when
the armed forces were called up during the Korean
Conflict. The Seabees were among those called for
duty. Fighting enormous ocean tides as well as enemy
fire, the Seabees constructed causeways for assault
troops as they landed at Inchon.

After the Korean Conflict, the Seabees were not
demobilized, but given the supplementary mission of
providing humanitarian support and disaster recovery
to nations in need, giving them the nickname of “the
Navy’s Peace Corps.” The Seabees’ first humanitarian
mission occurred in 1953 when they were deployed to
Greece in the wake of a devastating earthquake. They
provided construction and training, including building
roads and public utilities.

In recent years, Seabees have aided the victims
of various disasters, including the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004, Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy, and the
Pakistan earthquake. They drilled wells, erected tents
and built roads to help the Kurdish refugees in Iraq
after Operation Desert Storm and helped citizens in
the Philippines dig out from tons of volcanic ash following the eruption of Mount Pinatubo. Seabees also
deployed to Somalia and Haiti to support humanitarian
efforts there and constructed tent camps for more than
40,000 Haitian and Cuban migrants in Guantanamo